Fixed bridge and multiple tunings. Need adjustments?

[maddnotez]

Can a fixed bridged guitar handle multiple tunings?
I have had Floyd Rose equipped guitars for the last 15 years and I never ever thought I would consider anything different.

However I am now doing just so.

I met some guys and they have different tunings for different songs and it started to make me think a little more.

Realistically, I do not need the floyd. Yes I love it, pretty cool using that whammy bar. But at the price of tone/sustain (subjective I know) It is confortable and is something I have always used.

But my question is this. Lets say I do buy a fixed bridge guitar and have it in Drop C and then I want to tune it to Drop Bb or something different. Will I need to adjust the neck?

I know with a floyd I am going to crack out my tool belt and adjust everything including the neck and it is a huge pain.

With a Floyd I pretty much need 1 guitar for each tuning due to the convenience factor, I wont have time to change tunings on stage and sometimes it will take a while to set and hold the tuning change.

I have been thinking if I did get a fixed bridge it would be to use multiple tunings on the same guitar, allow me to do this quickly with no hassle and no adjustments.

Something tells me I am still going to need a neck adjustment when I change a tuning on a fixed bridge but I was hoping for confirmation from you guys.

Pros and Cons? Thoughts, Suggestions?

 

[cardinal]

You're intonation will be out as you change from one tuning to another. Maybe the truss rod would need adjusting if you're making wild tuning changes, but I'd think that for the most part, the differences in string tension won't be so large as to cause significant shifts in the neck relief.

EDIT: if you wanted to keep using guitars with floating Floyds, you could look into the Tremol-no or something similar. I just put a Tremol-no in a guitar and it seems OK. It'll hold the bridge well enough for re-tuning, etc. It's not the most solid lock that I could imagine, but you'd probably be able to completely change tunings within a few minutes using it. Not great, but way faster than if the Floyd were free floating.

 

[jsp]

You might be able to get away with half a step difference if you're not too picky on exact intonation and action. Beyond that, you would probably still want to go with a different guitar for each tuning if you don't want to do any adjustments.

 

[maddnotez]

You might be able to get away with half a step difference if you're not too picky on exact intonation and action. Beyond that, you would probably still want to go with a different guitar for each tuning if you don't want to do any adjustments.

That's what I was afraid of.

Thanks for the replies